Carmen Strigel

About Carmen Strigel

As the Senior Director, Center for Advanced Analytics and Visualization at RTI International, I lead a team of 50+ amazing AI researchers, data scientists, geospatial experts, and creatives whose work helps elucidate actionable insights across sectors, including health, energy and environment, agriculture, and education.I also lead RTI’s global initiatives in EdTech and AI to strengthen teaching, learning, and data-driven decision-making in low- and middle-income countries. Illustratively, I oversee development of Loquat, which uses machine learning to analyze classroom speech patterns, and CurrantMobile™, a serious game that measures youth employability skills. I advise governments and funders—including UNICEF, Asian Development Bank, Gates Foundation, and Jacobs Foundation—on digital development strategies that drive measurable impact in education systems. As CEO of Tangerine Central I also lead the development of the Tangerine® platform, originally developed at RTI. Tangerine is a suite of open-source tools for assessment, teacher support, and program monitoring used in over 60 countries and 100 languages. Read more at: research portfolio spans over 25 studies in 30+ countries, covering AI in education, EdTech, early literacy and numeracy, secondary STEM and language instruction, inclusive education, and youth life skills. I regularly contribute to conferences, publications, and blogs, and serve on international task forces and advisory boards, including the AI Content Curation Task Force (managed by AI for Education.org) and Brookings\' Global Costing Task Force for Education. I previously co-chaired the Basic Education Coalition’s EdTech working group and served on the World Bank EdTech Readiness Index Advisory Board.With 20+ years of experience across Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Pacific, I’ve managed project portfolios exceeding $150M, led teams of over 100 staff, and raised more than $200M in funding in the past five years alone.I hold a doctorate in educational neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and was trained as a secondary teacher in Germany. I’ve taught in JHU’s Mind, Brain, and Teaching doctoral program and served on the board of the Rotary Peace Center at Duke University–University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA (2016–2022).

Experience

1. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

   Tangerine Central

   Oct 2025 — Present

   As CEO of Tangerine Central, I lead our strategic direction, operations, and innovation efforts to expand access to high-quality data for learning. I’m a lifelong advocate for data-driven decision-making and inclusive education, with deep experience in EdTech, large-scale assessments, and systems strengthening. I created the Tangerine platform to support offline-first data collection and real-time monitoring in low-resource environments. At Tangerine Central, I’m focused on advancing open-source tools and locally led solutions that unlock the power of data to improve education outcomes.

Education

• The Johns Hopkins University

  Doctor of Education (EdD), Mind, Brain and Teaching

  2016 — 2019

• Växjö University

  Certificate, Communication and Media Studies

  1998 — 1999

• Duke University

  Graduate Certificate, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution

  2002 — 2004

• Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten

  B.A, Education (1. Staatsexamen), Secondary School Teaching (Mathematics, Geography, English)

  1996 — 2001

• The Johns Hopkins University

  Graduate Certificate, Leadership in Technology Integration

  2012 — 2013

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  M.A., Education, International Development, New Technologies

  2002 — 2004

Skills

• Change Management
• Organizational Development
• Management
• Staff Development
• Project Management
• Teaching
• Strategy
• Data Analysis
• Spanish
• Leadership
• Training
• Instructional Design
• Proposal Writing
• Governance
• Policy
• Strategic Planning
• International Development
• Integration
• Capacity Building
• Research